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hardy plank << Hardie plank

I spent some time this week nailing up the exterior siding for a house addition. We’re finishing it with Hardie Plank. This siding is made by James Hardie Industries, a building materials company founded in Australia in the late nineteenth century by a Scot, James Hardie. The company specializes in cement sheet and cement fibre products.

Hardie Plank is on the verge of genericide, of becoming, like “aspirin,” “zipper,” and “thermos,” a trademarked factotum. On its way to genericity, however, the phrase has stumbled onto Aunty Lehman territory. The web is awash with the term “hardy plank.” Not a bad alias for this durable material.